Let’s talk about lips today! I’ve never been a big lipstick fan, but in the last few months my lipgloss collection of ONE has turned into a collection of about 30 lip products. There’s been a lot of hype around ‘liquid lipsticks’ or ‘lip lacquers’. These claim to be a gloss, lipstick, shine and stain all in one product.

Amongst my basket full of lip goodies, I realized I didn’t own and have not yet tried any of these trending lippies. And other Pretties in the beauty-blogosphere have been raving about them — mostly comparing the formula to that of the high-end Yves Saint Laurent Rouge Pur Couture Glossy Stains. I soon found out that the YSL version sold for around $38. WHAAT? No way was I dishing out a few days grocery cash for one lipstick!? Lipgloss!? Lipstain!? Gah! Whatever!

So, in true Tess fashion, I hit the internet beauty blogging world and found a couple products that were considered to be “dupes” of the YSL Glossy Stains. The ones I decided to try out were the L’oreal Colour Riche L’Extrodinaire Lipstick and the Rimmel Apocolips Lip Lacquer:

L’oreal Colour Riche L’Extrodinaire Lipstick in 500 Molto Mauve

Rimmel Apocolips Lip Lacquer in 201 Solstice

I got each of these on sale at Shoppers Drug Mart for $7 each. Whenever I try out a new lip product, I typically purchase the most natural, MLBB (my lips but better) shade if I’m new to the formula. And it’s always a safe bet to go with an MLBB shade because you can wear them everyday and they’ll never go out of style.

The colours I went for with both the L’oreal and the Rimmel were MLBB, with a touch of colour: the L’oreal in 500 Molto Mauve has a hint of mauve/purple which gave my lips a subtle wash of extra mauvey colour. The Rimmel in 201 Solstice is more on the deep pink side which me an extra “oomph” of pink to my natural lip colour. From the swatches they look very similar (sorry, lighting) but the L’oreal does lean towards a mauve with a purple undertone and the Rimmel leans more to deep pink with blue undertone.

Colour pay off is AWESOME. Pretty much one swipe with the applicator is enough to get a lot of colour on the lips. I actually found that I had to wipe some of the product off the applicator because it was just too much!

They both do not dry out my lips after colour has faded. I found that my lips actually felt hydrated after the product wore off.

They both use doe-foot applicators which are both very soft and can soak up a lot of product for one application (sometimes too much like I said before).

They both come in a wide range of colours — from nudes, peaches, corals, pinks, mauves, and reds. However, I found that the L’oreal shades were a bit more “conservative”, whereas the Rimmel shades looked more “fun”.

The differences and downsides:

Packaging is quite different: the L’oreal packaging is very pretty in my opinion and it’s actually very very similar packaging to the YSL Glossy Stain. The Rimmel packaging, for me, is just ok.

The L’oreal smells like peaches — a winner in my books. The Rimmel, however, smells something similar to beans (that’s what my boyfriend Dan said when I asked him to take a whiff). To me, I can only describe the smell of the Rimmel as something forest-like or bush-like… as you can see this one is a hard one to describe! I suggest you go and smell it for yourself! It’s just weird and quite unappealing. And with that weird scent, it TASTES weird too. Blech.

I didn’t find the L’oreal to leave much of a stain behind after most of the gloss had worn off; the Rimmel however, I did find that it left behind a hint of colour on my lips (I didn’t expect much here, as these products do not claim to be long-lasting).

Wearing L’oreal. I couldn’t get a photo to capture the true colour of this, but see how the finish is super glossy?

L’oreal Lipstick.

Wearing Rimmel. Again, photo does not do the shade justice (see the swatch pic above for a better idea). The finish on this is much less glossy than the L’oreal and much more satin-smooth.

Rimmel Lip Lacquer.

Overall, I don’t love the products; I wouldn’t even say that I like them very much. There are definitely some great things about them but for my personal preference, there’s many other lippies out there that I’d much rather wear. Other than making my lips look pretty fabulous, they’re just so-so. With that said, I actually prefer the Rimmel formula on my lips rather than the L’oreal – I actually prefer the colour on me; the finish is nicer; and it leaves my lips a slight bit softer after it’s worn off. But its smell and taste is something I’ll have to try to overlook. If it weren’t for that, this would be a lippie I’d probably make sure I have in my makeup bag all the time. But because the Rimmel formula is something I’m very impressed with, I may be, MAYBE, inclined to purchase another colour some day.

This is one trend that I don’t think I’ll continue to follow that closely. But please! Don’t let my experience or opinion of these products let me convince you to not try these products! You might actually really like them! And hey, to pay $7 for a product that is potentially identical for a $38 product? I’d say that’s a pretty good deal so go for it!

I give the L’oreal Colour Riche L’Extrodinaire Lipstick: a THUMBS DOWN

I give the Rimmel Apocolips Lip Lacquer: a SHOULDER SHRUG

Have you tried any of these products? What do you think of them?

Thanks for tuning in Pretties!

And remember… if there’s anything you’d like me to review, please leave a comment below and I’ll try to do the best I can!